A room with a view to sigh for

5:05pm Saturday 17th May 2008

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BINS outside a town centre restaurant overflowed because refuse collectors could not get to them.

Drivers had parked in newly-created spaces, blocking the binmen's access.

"The binmen came and actually drove around a couple of times waiting for a car to move," said Piccolino manager Sadie Anderson-Mann.

"But they had other places to go and they couldn't just hang around all day." This picture was emailed to the Guardian by Kath Tipping, whose elderly mother lives in the Old Market Place.

"This was the view from her living room window over the weekend," she wrote. Ms Anderson-Mann said she too had recorded the incident.

"I've taken pictures on my mobile phone and sent it to our maintenance manager to explain what the problem is," she said. "It was really very bad but we couldn't do anything about it."

The restaurant backs on to Old Market Place car park, which recently had bays repainted after Macclesfield Borough Council took over parking enforcement from the police.

That means more cars are using spaces that previously appeared to be a restaurant access zone.

King Street businesses Piccolino and Amber Lounge both use the entrance for bin collection and deliveries.

Piccolino have been trying to stop cars parking in the bays on bin days - Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays - by putting bins out or encouraging their own staff to park in the spaces.

But it has not been entirely successful.

"People can move the bins and when we arrive in the morning there are cars parked there," said Ms Anderson-Mann. "We can get all our deliveries in but it means stopping in the middle of the car park and blocking more spaces."

She said she had not contacted Macclesfield Borough Council about the problem yet.

"It has only just become an issue," she said.

"If it's something that's going to continue we will have to talk to them. Ideally that square would not be for parking but they have to get their money for as many spaces as possible I suppose."

Macclesfield Borough Council was unavailable for comment.